UN: Iran using drones to enforce hijab law

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A Friday report by the United Nations says Iran is using advanced technology, including drones, facial recognition and a citizen-reporting app to crack down on violations of its mandatory hijab laws. A key element of the effort is the government-backed Nazer app, which enables the police and “vetted” members of the public to report alleged violations by women in vehicles, including those in ambulances, mass transit and taxis. The report describes the app as allowing users to upload the vehicle license plate, location and time of an alleged violation. It then, according to the report, alerts police. Then, according tomore

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Belgium makes arrests in corruption probe linked to EU

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BRUSSELS — Belgian federal prosecutors announced Thursday the arrests of several people as part of a corruption probe linked to the European Parliament amid reports in local media that Chinese company Huawei bribed EU lawmakers. The arrests came as an investigation by Le Soir newspaper and other media said lobbyists working for the Chinese telecoms giant are suspected of bribing current or former European Parliament members to promote the company’s commercial policy in Europe. About 100 federal police officers carried out 21 searches in Brussels, the Flanders and Wallonia regions, and Portugal, the federal prosecutor’s office said. The suspects would bemore

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Meta tests ‘Community Notes’ to replace fact-checkers

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SAN FRANCISCO — Social media giant Meta on Thursday announced it would begin testing its new “Community Notes” feature across its platforms on March 18, as it shifts away from third-party fact-checking toward a crowd-sourced approach to content moderation. Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the new system in January as he appeared to align himself with the incoming Trump administration, including naming a Republican as the company’s head of public policy. The change of system came after years of criticism from supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, among others, that conservative voices were being censored or stifled under the guisemore

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Launch pad problem delays SpaceX flight to replace NASA’s stuck astronauts

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A launch pad problem prompted SpaceX to delay a flight to the International Space Station on Wednesday to replace NASA’s two stuck astronauts. The new crew needs to get to the station so that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can head home after nine months in orbit. Concerns about a critical hydraulic system arose less than four hours before the Falcon rocket’s planned evening liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. As the countdown clocks ticked down, engineers evaluated the hydraulics used to release one of the two arms clamping the rocket to its support structure. This structuremore

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China boosting development of AI for use in trade war with US

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NEW DELHI — Encouraged by the enthusiastic reception to its DeepSeek artificial intelligence platform in January, China’s leaders are going all out to encourage AI companies to harness the power of this technology to compete with the United States and other countries in business and military spheres. China considers AI an important tool to handle U.S. restrictions on Chinese business, particularly after DeepSeek shook up Wall Street, resulting in a loss of $589 billion for Nvidia stockholders in late January. “The government in China works directly with the private sector and universities in the advancement and deployment of AI technology andmore

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US drops antitrust case against Google over AI, not Chrome

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The U.S. Department of Justice dropped a proposal Friday to force Alphabet’s Google to sell its investments in artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI competitor Anthropic, to boost competition in online search. The DOJ and a coalition of 38 state attorneys general still seek a court order requiring Google to sell its Chrome browser and take other measures aimed at addressing what a judge said was Google’s illegal search monopoly, according to court papers filed in Washington. “The American dream is about higher values than just cheap goods and ‘free’ online services. These values include freedom of speech, freedom of association,more

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Trump to host White House crypto summit

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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday hosts top cryptocurrency players at the White House, a political boost for an industry that has struggled to gain legitimacy — and where the Republican president faces conflict of interest concerns. The president’s “crypto czar,” Silicon Valley investor David Sacks, has invited prominent founders, CEOs and investors along with members of a Trump working group, to craft policies aimed at accelerating crypto growth, and providing legitimacy that the industry has long sought. On Thursday night, Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” a move that Sacks said made good onmore

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Musk fails in bid to block OpenAI becoming for-profit business

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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — A U.S. judge on Tuesday denied Elon Musk’s request to prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit business in a loss for the Tesla tycoon amid his feud with Sam Altman.  U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Musk and his xAI startup failed to prove an injunction against OpenAI was necessary as the case heads to trial.  Musk sued in California federal court to stop OpenAI from transitioning from a nonprofit to a for-profit business, arguing the startup violated antitrust law and betrayed his trust in their mission as a co-founder of OpenAI.  The judgemore

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VOA Mandarin: Who has better humanoid robots, US or China?

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Chinese tech firms and state media have spotlighted humanoid robots, which have grown in popularity since the Unitree G1 appeared to run, jump, dance and perform martial arts-like movements in a recent demonstration. Both the United States and China are leaders in humanoid robot technology. But industry analysts believe that the United States is superior in AI technology, which is responsible for the robot’s “brain,” while Chinese technology companies have flourished in the hardware manufacturing capabilities of the robot’s “body.” Click here for the full story in Mandarin. …

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China uses DeepSeek AI for surveillance and information attacks on US

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The United States may become the second country after Australia to ban China’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence on government devices. U.S. Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Darin LaHood introduced a bipartisan bill proposing the ban. In their letter to 47 U.S. governors and the mayor of Washington, the congressmen warned that DeepSeek could pose security risks to sensitive government data and cybersecurity and Americans’ privacy, NBC News reported on March 3. China denies the allegations. However, concerns highlighted by the U.S. lawmakers and state officials are not without merit, experts say. The Chinese government has reportedly also used AI models like DeepSeekmore

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Trump, Taiwanese chipmaker announce new $100 billion plan to build five new US factories

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WASHINGTON — Chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced on Monday plans to make an additional $100 billion investment in the United States and build five additional chips factories in the coming years. TSMC CEO C.C. Wei announced the plan in a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump. “We must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here,” Trump said. “It’s a matter of national security for us.” TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is a leading supplier to major U.S. hardware manufacturers. The $100 billion outlay, which would boost domestic production andmore

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2 lunar landings in a week for NASA’s private moon fleet

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WASHINGTON — More than 50 years passed between the last Apollo mission and the United States’ return to the lunar surface, when the first private lander touched down last February 2024. Now, starting Sunday, two more missions are set to follow within a single week, marking a bold push by NASA and its industry partners to make moon landings a routine part of space exploration. First up is Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, nicknamed “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” After launching in January on a 45-day journey, it is targeting touchdown near Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature in Mare Crisiummore

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Private company’s craft rockets toward moon in latest rush of lunar landing attempts

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A private company launched another lunar lander Wednesday, aiming to get closer to the moon’s south pole this time with a drone that will hop into a black crater where the sun never shines.  Intuitive Machines’ lander, named Athena, caught a lift with SpaceX from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It’s taking a fast track to the moon, with a landing on March 6. The company hopes to avoid the fate of Athena’s predecessor, which tipped over at touchdown.  Never before have so many spacecraft angled for the moon’s surface all at once. Last month, U.S. and Japanesemore

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Musicians release silent album to protest UK’s AI copyright changes

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LONDON — More than 1,000 musicians including Kate Bush and Cat Stevens on Tuesday released a silent album to protest proposed changes to Britain’s copyright laws which could allow tech firms to train artificial intelligence models using their work. Creative industries globally are grappling with the legal and ethical implications of AI models that can produce their own output after being trained on popular works without necessarily paying the creators of the original content. Britain, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to become an AI superpower, has proposed relaxing laws that currently give creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic worksmore

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Apple to build 23,200-square meter facility in Texas

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U.S. tech giant Apple has announced plans to create some 20,000 jobs and invest $500 billion over the next four years in the United States.  Apple says it will expand teams and facilities in nine states across the country and that it aims to open a 23,200-square-meter server manufacturing facility in Texas in 2026.  The announcement comes just days after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with U.S. President Donald Trump.  “We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” Cook saidmore

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Australia fines Telegram for delay in answering child abuse, terror questions

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Sydney — Australia’s online safety regulator fined messaging platform Telegram about $640,000 on Monday for its delay in answering questions about measures the app took to prevent the spread of child abuse and violent extremist material. The eSafety Commission in March 2024 sought responses from social media platforms YouTube, X and Facebook to Telegram and Reddit, and blamed them for not doing enough to stop extremists from using live-streaming features, algorithms and recommendation systems to recruit users. Telegram and Reddit were asked about the steps they were taking to combat child sexual abuse material on their services. They had to respondmore

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Rich in cash, Japan automaker Toyota builds city to test futuristic mobility

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SUSONO — Woven City near Mount Fuji is where Japanese automaker Toyota plans to test everyday living with robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous zero-emissions transportation. Daisuke Toyoda, an executive in charge of the project from the automaker’s founding family, stressed it’s not “a smart city.” “We’re making a test course for mobility so that’s a little bit different. We’re not a real estate developer,” he said Saturday during a tour of the facility, where the first phase of construction was completed. The Associated Press was the first foreign media to get a preview of the $10 billion Woven City. The firstmore

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VOA Mandarin: How will China help developing countries promote AI?

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After China’s DeepSeek gained global recognition, some argue that the U.S.-China rivalry in AI may be upended. In addition, the Chinese Communist Party is actively offering to help developing countries strengthen their AI capacity building. Observers said that China is selling its AI software to targeted regions, which can challenge U.S. AI and serve as a strategy for Chinese companies to get more business overseas. Click here for the full story in Mandarin.  …

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EU approves $960 million in German aid for Infineon chips plant

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BRUSSELS — The European Commission said Thursday it had approved 920 million-euro of German state aid, or $960 million, to Infineon Technologies for the construction of a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Dresden. The measure will allow Infineon to complete the MEGAFAB-DD project, which will be able to produce a wide range of different types of computer chips, the Commission said. Chipmakers across the globe are pouring billions of dollars into new plants, as they take advantage of generous subsidies from the United States and the EU to keep the West ahead of China in developing cutting-edge semiconductor technology. The Europeanmore

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Philippines reports intrusions targeting intelligence data

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Manila, Philippines — The Philippines has detected foreign attempts to access intelligence data, but its cyber minister said on Tuesday no breaches have been recorded so far. Attempts to steal data are wide-ranging, said minister for information and communications Ivan Uy. Advanced Persistent Threats or APTs have repeatedly attempted but failed to infiltrate government systems, suggesting the country’s cyber-defenses have held firm. APTs are a general term for cyber actors or groups, often state-backed, that engage in malicious cyber activities. “These have been present for quite some time, and threats come from many actors, but a big majority of them aremore

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